Pages

ATTENTION, READERS in the 28 EUROPEAN VAT COUNTRIES: Because of the new VAT law, you probably can't order books direct from my site now. But that's okay -- just go to my Smashwords author page.You can order PDFs (as well as all the other ebook formats) from there.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Around the wider world of golf: Yani Tseng won the ANZ RACV Ladies Masters on the LET down under in Queensland, Australia, snagging her 7th victory in 12 months and #1 on the Rolex Rankings as well; Alvaro Quiros won the Omega Dubai Desert Classic in Dubai on the ET; and Tom Lehman won the Allianz Championship on the Champions Tour.

Let's not kid ourselves. Everybody knows the real news at Pebble Beach was "the Cinderella story." (Ok, I promise not to use that again... but Google listed no less than 1604 articles about Murray winning at Pebble. Points? Who's Points?) And nobody involved in the TV coverage even pretended it was otherwise.

Can you blame them? That the star of one of the most iconic golf movies ever made (and yes, I vote for Caddyshack over Tin Cup) should finally win the most history-laden pro-am in the history of the game has to rate as one of the greatest golf stories of the year. I'll leave everybody else to sing the praises of Bill Murray (rightfully so -- he played pretty well all on his own) and limit myself to the pros who made up the subplot.

And what a subplot it was! Hunter Mahan charging up the leaderboard to prove that his Ryder Cup experience had only strengthened him; Steve Marino once again placing himself in position to get his first win -- and at Pebble, no less; Phil Mickelson's "on again, off again" heroics that nearly got him into contention; and D.A. Points, another good young yet-to-win player who supposedly had the most distracting amateur partner on the course. Of course, Points said the distraction was good for him... and by Sunday, everyone agreed with him.

Even if Mahan had managed to birdie 18 instead of settling for a three-putt par, he would have come up one short. The Points hole-out for eagle at 14 (which spawned the awkward celebration between Points and Murray pictured above) and the long snaking putt he sank for birdie on 15 pretty much locked up the tournament, despite the typical "oil leak" that Points, like most first-time winners, sprouted down the stretch. He still managed to post three pars to finish the tournament... and make his partner the darling of the media in the process. (Who do you think will make more late-night talk show appearances this week?)

And so I give you another magical moment with this week's Limerick Summary. Oh... and that promise not to use the Cinderella story line again? I lied. ;-)

The story was pure Cinderella
As Murray kept Points feeling mella.
His manner's not slick,
But Points says that his schtick
Does a shrink job as good as Rotella.

Some of our fellow golf bloggers criticized the networks for featuring the celebrities too much. Personally, I like it. We know the pros are good, but it's fun to see average hacks like myself try to tame Pebble Beach.

We only have to endure celebrities twice a season. At Pebble and for the Bob Hope. So it's not a big deal. It's good for the game too. The fans seem to have a great time, and the pros that show up embrace their celebrity playing partners. And when a person like D.A. Points thanks everyone for coming, it makes the spectators feel like they are part of the weekend.

It doesn't hurt that the amateur winner this week was Bill Murray, either. Murray has become the unofficial host of the event, much the way Jack Lemmon did before he died in 2001, and the fans love him. His win was a real boost for the event.

It might have been different had the winner been the CEO of some corporation.

There's a URL in the book where you can downloadthe free ebook Ruthless Chipping.However, IT'S NOT WORKING because ofsecurity changes in the site. Instead, go to this link:defiantpub.com/ruthlesschippingand you can download EPUB, PDF or KINDLE versions.

Check out the Ruthless Golf store at Zazzle.com!

About Me

Author of several golf books including Ruthless Putting and Stop Coming Over-the-Top, and editor of Classic Adventure Stories: Swashbucklers, a collection of classic sword-fighting novels. I've run the Ruthless Golf blog since mid-2009. And I've also done some writing for Golfsmith.com.

I'm a writer, cartoonist, graphic artist & self-publisher who's played in some local pro golf tournaments. The challenge of learning new things really appeals to me. And I don't believe age should ever keep you from chasing your dreams.

I also write children's easy reader books under the pen name Mick Michaels, and poetry under the pen name Will Shakespeare.